WHEN SHOULD A HORSE BE WATERE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 68

WHEN SHOULD A HORSE BE WATERE

(By Wentworth in the “Farm.")

Watering horses is a subject of considerable importance, and there are few OAvners and responsible servants who have not their OAvn ideas as to the best or proper time to water. Recently, “Welshman," in a question relating to the supply of this essential fluid to coavs, referred to the commonly-accepted theory that when ivater is given to horses after feeding the food gets Avashed out of the stomach before being properly digested. This theory is defensible on physiological grounds, and has the support of experience in the every-day management of the horse.

We are taught that the digestion of corn takes place principally in the stomach, while that of hay is further carried on in the intestines; that water does not stay lcng in the stomach, experiments showing that water will pass from the stomach to the caecum, sometimes called the “water stomach/’, in from five to fifteen minutes,- and that be§j.des washing grain from the stomach into the intestines before stomach digestion is complete, a large influx of cold water lowers the temperature of the stomach, dilutes the secretions, and so checks or seriously interferes with digestion. This is in accordance with the experience and teaching of such eminent physiologists as Colin and Smith ; indeed, the latter says most positively, in describing stomach digestion in the horse, that the regular arrangement of

the different foods in layers—for it has been found that if a horse is fed on three or four foods in succession, they arrange themselves in the stomach in the order in which they ai’rive, and do hot mix—is only disturbed when a horse is watered after feeding, and that under these circumstances the contents are mixed together and digestion thereby impeded. He adds:— “Apart from this, the influx of a considerable quantity of fluid into a stomach already containing as much as it should hold, means that material is washed out of it into the small and large intestines, and this may set up irritation and colic. By watering a horse after feeding, more than half the food may bo Avashed out of the stomach. The Avater a horse drinks does not remain in the stomach, but passes immediately into the small intestines, and in the course of a feAv minutes finds its way into the caecum ; hence 'the golden rule of experience that horses should be Avatered first and fed afterwards. ”

Recently, hoAvever, one of those bulletins which so frequently upset our ideas as to the management and feeding of animals has been issued from an American station dealing Avith the subject of horse-feeding, and in reviewing some of the main points (we have not seen the original report), a provincial contemporary thus refers to the time at Avhich horses should be Avatered in relation to their feeding:— “(Many owners and stablemen believe that horses should be Avatered before feeding, while others are equally certain that feeding should precede watering. None of the American experiments have shown that either of these methods is better than the other. Dr Tangl has made a series of experiments extending over several years, and Avith various rations made up of maize, oats, hay, and straw. In some of these' the horses drank before, and in some after eating; and in others, again, the grain portion of the ration was eaten, but before the hay. These showed that the time of drinking had no effect on the digestibility of the ration of grain and hay. When hay only AA'as fed there seemed to be a slight advantage in watering before feeding. In general, horses may be Avatered before, during, or after meals without interfering with the digestion or absorption of food. All these methods of watering are equally good, and each of them may be employed according to circumstances. But, although all methods of watering are equally good for the horse, it is not desirable to change unnecessarily from one method to another. Animals, or, at least, some of them, appear to he not altogether indifferent to such a change. In DR. TANGL’S EXPERIMENTS it Avas found that whenever a change in the plan of Avatering after feeding to that of watering before feeding Avas made, the appetite fell off for some days; not that the horses did not consume the whole of the food given them, hut for some days they did not eat with the same avidity as before, and took a long time to consume the rations completely. A similar change was not observed Avlien the change was from watering before to watering after feeding, or from Avatering after to Avatering during meals, or when the change Avas in the opposite direction to the last. It is possible that the method of watering before feeding, until tne animal has become accustomed to it, produces a certain feeling of satiety. But Avhile there is little to choose betAveen the time of watering, Dr Tangl came to the conclusion that there are circumstances in which both Avatering before eating and watering after eating are useful. - After severe loss of Avator, such as occurs in consequence of long-continued severe work, the animal should always be allowed to drink before he is fed, as otherwise he will not feed well. On the other hand, if there are signs that the horse is slightly bound, Avatering after meals Avill make him somewhat more loose. The quantity, of water Avhich a horse takes is also slightly increased when given after feeding." Personally, Ave have always been in favour of the plan of keeping water in front of the animal so that it can drink at will, hut where circumstances render this inconvenient or impracticable, we are strongly in favour of the plan based on the physiology of Simith and others, and on our own experience, of watering first and feeding afterwards.